Forsaken: Narue’s Memories
by Chindaku
Summary: The ninja world is introduced to a calmer, smarter and female Naruto called Uzumaki Narue with a demon in her stomach, a mysterious traumatic past and abilities beyond the grave.


Disclaimer: As anti-photogenic as I am, I am fond of putting my picture along with a mini biography on my published works. Since Naruto manga and anime does not have the photo of yours truly on it, you can conclude that I don't own Naruto. Instead, the honor goes to Kishimoto Masashi, although he doesn't put his photo on his works, not even a chibi self-portrait.

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Summary- The ninja world is introduced to a calmer, smarter and female Naruto called Uzumaki Narue with a demon in her stomach, a mysterious traumatic past and abilities beyond the grave.

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**Forsaken: Narue's Memories**  
by Chindaku 

Chapter I: The Third Procrastinates

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It was a beautiful day in Village of the Hidden Leaf. Market places were full of bustling civilians doing their daily grocery shopping. The sun winked down at the passing children rushing through the streets playing tags with sellers yelling out bargaining prices. Today, the skies shone a magnificent blue. It was the type of blue that made you want to stare into it forever, daydreaming, as clouds of various shapes and sizes lazily billowed and drifted past your eyes.

It was a beautiful day and the Sandaime was stuck indoors with his so-called best friend ever since being reinstalled into the position of Hokage, paperwork. Said Hokage was busy puffing tobacco infested smoke into the air of his office, attempting to create different shapes out of the grey, wispy substance with the help of a miniscule amount of chakra. It was one of the most subtle forms of procrastination passed down from generations of pipe puffers.

A giant stack of paperwork loomed over the Third's head, swaying gently in an invisible breeze, threatening to topple over any moment onto the desk. The Hokage doubted that his sturdy desk could take any more toppling papers.

The exalted leader of Kohohagakure heaved an exasperated sigh. It so happened that on beautiful days like this did the civilians somehow managed to flood the offices with twice as many simple and pointless chores, and manage to get it to become a D-rank mission request.

_It's a good thing that a new batch of Gennin would be graduating soon,_ thought the Sandaime. _With the heirs of several influential ninja clans in this year's bunch, the potential can be uncovered through teamwork._

_Not only that, but I'll have last year's Gennin and lower ranked Chuunin off my back for giving them mediocre missions._ The Third chuckled good-heartedly. The next Gennin test to determine the candidates for the final test was going to be later on in the afternoon. He had to give an opening speech. The graduating class rarely listened to the entire thing.

The event of the graduation itself was always a joyous event, but every year, the legendary Professor couldn't help but think how many were going to die, how many were going to become heartless killers, how many would quit and how many would go insane. It hurt him.

Nowadays, there was an extraordinary amount of ninjas with some form of insanity. As carefully concealed as they were, it was there. Take the well-known Copy Cat Ninja Kakashi as an example. He had a habit of being chronically late and his never-ending supply of bookstore smut to read. Then there was Maito Gai, the self-proclaimed rival of Kakashi. Always spouting about the spring of youth and yelling out impossible self-challenges. His perception and speech patterns had changed after witnessing the death of his teammates in front of his eyes. Sadly, his fashion sense had always been the same.

The main source of insanity came from the first kill and witnessing the death of someone important to you. When choosing the career of a ninja, one knew of the consequences and what undesired aspects that came with it. Many logical and illogical solutions were offered for this dilemma. Many more ruthless shinobi suggested that academy students should go through several genjutsu simulations and then kill off a criminal for experience and so that shinobi could adapt to the killing of teammates and comrades easier. The opposing shinobi argued that this grotesque process would turn them into a mime of the Hidden Mist. They suggested letting the first kill and first death come in time and leave the leave the ninjas as individuals to deal with it. If they had a strong will, they would move on to become a strong ninja. If they couldn't deal with the trauma, they should stop being shinobi altogether. It was deemed as a systematic way of picking off the 'weak' and keeping the 'strong'.

The Yondaime disagreed with both parties. Instead, he combined both propositions.

Since there was no jutsu, no cure powerful enough to overcome the influence of traumatic incidents, after the Rock-Leaf war, the village had established a medical wing for dealing with psychological trauma and the human mind. Unemployed civilians and retired ninjas jumped onto this job opportunity. This wing would serve as a counseling center for ninja's to be and to help those who have a psychological illness or mental disability, a push onto the road of recovery.

Counseling started as early as possible. Once an academy student had gotten their head around the concept of death, the counselor assigned to that class would start the sessions. Unsurprisingly, they refused to council only one student, Uzumaki Narue.

During one of the sessions, a teacher who knew of the Uzumaki's tenant told the class's counselor who Narue really was. It was one of the loopholes in the Third's law. The knowledge of the demon vessel was to not be passed on to the younger generation but nothing was said about spreading the word between the older generations. The counselor immediately called the Uzumaki an abomination and said the following words:

"It needs no counseling; it already knows how to kill. It is a filthy demon, an animal. It doesn't know how to feel because it has no feelings."  
The counselor had said this in front of the Uzumaki, apparently forgetting that said child had perfectly functional ears.

The Sandaime couldn't go against them because in the founding of the psychological medical branch, the staff had the right to refuse patients, because many faked so they could have the free meals and care provided by the hospital. But then they took it too far. The whole of Konoha's hospital refused to service the 'Kyuubi brat' because of 'what it was'.

It was one of the few times in the history of Konoha did the Sandaime Hokage became…pissed. It took three death threats including one personally delivered by the Third himself for their will to relent. It didn't help either that the council of elders strongly supported the hospital's bold declaration.

Although their apparent refusal to relent was admirable, the Third strongly felt that they were acting like pigs. The staff was so stubborn; it was to the point of idiotism. Uzumaki Narue the reincarnation of Kyuubi indeed.

The Hokage snorted at the thought of the particular incident. He along with the Yondaime hoped that the villagers would accept the vessel as a hero among heroes. Instead, they spited her and treated her lower with the most hatred they could muster up every time they spotted her.

It was bad enough that they called her names and assaulted her on several accounts, but she just had to have insomnia. Narue believed what the villagers said to be true. It wasn't helping that the Kyuubi was trying to get out. At the age of two, Narue unconsciously made a decision to refuse sleep lest she release the demon upon the villagers. As much as she loved the village, they hated her. She was their scapegoat.

The Hokage saw this and wanted to give Narue at least a chance to be recognized among the younger generation. He imposed a law declaring that the new generation would not be told of the Uzumaki's burden. It seemed to do more harm than good. Narue grew even more miserable not knowing the reason of why she was hated.

There were a number of attacks on the child in the past. All harmed her physical, mental and psychological wellbeing.

The most recent attacks was six months ago. Although with the Nine-tails, the child was unable to heal the last act that the perpetrators forced upon her. They had somehow carved three kanji characters on the small child's back, reaching from the base of her skull down to her tailbone. 狐妖怪: Kitsune Youkai, Demon Fox. What made the act atrocious was the fact that Narue was conscious throughout the three day long ordeal.

When the ANBU had found her, all trails of the criminals who did this to the innocent child were gone. So was the evidence of what happened to the girl. When reaching the hospital, all traces of injury except for the characters on Narue's back were gone, healed by the Kyuubi.

The trauma of the event was so great the Narue just lay there in bed, her black ringed cerulean eyes staring at the ceiling day after day, refusing to eat, talk or move. It had gotten so bad that the Third was ready to seal away the memories. He had walked into the room, painted seals all over the Uzumaki child when she suddenly snapped out of whatever self-induced coma she had put herself into. She became her normal hyperactive, lively self in less than 10 seconds after a month's stay in the hospital.

The Sandaime often assumed it was the doing of the Kyuubi. It didn't want a defenseless or weak vessel, and if the memories of the event was haunting and hindering his vessel, then off it goes. It will be one of the many unsolved cases involving Uzumaki Narue. Although the Third was one of the closest people to the child, he still didn't know anything about her.

The Sandaime shook himself out of his reverie and glanced at his timepiece. It was time to go and give his opening speech at the Academy. The Hokage slowly rose from his seat and gracefully started a calm, dignified walk that only old men managed to pull off.

None of the paperwork was done. Oh well. He'd do it when he came back.

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Iruka glanced around the room, eyebrow twitching. Barely five minutes into the Sandaime Hokage's speech, was nearly half of the class off doing something else. Haruno Sakura, this generation's brightest kunoichi was staring off into space, giggling every so often with a light blush adorning her face. Nara Shikamaru, the laziest boy in class already had his head down on his desk, not even bothering to cover his snores.

The scarred Chuunin sighed in exasperation. One of the qualities of a good shinobi was stealth! His gaze continued scanning the classroom as it came to rest on a petite blond kunoichi to be. Under the Hokage's request, he had officially taken Uzumaki Narue under his guardianship five years ago. He knew that the girl was not the Kyuubi no Kitsune, only the vessel. It made him seethe whenever he overheard the villagers talking about his apparent care over Narue.

"The wretched demon charmed that poor, defenseless Chuunin!"  
"I pity him, he had to put up with that filthy beast."  
"He must've done something serious to piss the Hokage off enough to give him this assignment."

He didn't even want to think about the blatant ignorance of the civilians.

He eyed the sky-blue eyed girl to see if there was any post-traumatic symptoms. His eye caught a tiny movement behind her facemask. If he hadn't had a sharp eye, he would've missed it completely. His excellent eyesight came from having to spot incoming shuriken and kunai coming his way during target practice, as well as having to keep a watch on wandering students.

Narue was talking to something because she sure as hell wasn't talking to herself. She wasn't that insane…yet. The dolphin Chuunin grew worried. It wasn't a matter of who she was talking to either.

On one side, she had Uchiha Sasuke, the resident avenger. As the last of his clan, he had brought it upon himself to act like an ice cube to everybody. Iruka shook his head. It was probably so he could hide his true personality under that cold front. But he still wouldn't talk to anybody, even though Narue wasn't a fervent fan girl of his.

To the right was Haruno Sakura. She only talked about Sasuke or to Sasuke. Narue loathed Sasuke, or as she put it, the 'bastard'. The child didn't even know the etymology of the word, because 'bastard' in the context of the last Uchiha was terminally incorrect, he was a perfectly legitimate child. Another reason why Narue wouldn't be talking to Sakura, was because the Haruno was one of the few who were totally enraptured in the Hokage's opening speech.

The person sitting in the desk in front of her was one of the children who had Kyuubi hater as parents. He would never, even if the world was ending, talk with the blonde child.

Nobody from the seats behind were leaning forward either, talking to Narue. If Narue wasn't talking to anybody around her, who was she talking to?

Or what she was talking to.

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"Uzumaki Narue."

A groan could be heard from a blond mop of hair. The person in question was actually having a battle of wits and retorts with her tenant when the kitsune had demanded yet again for some form of entertainment as he had been very bored. Well, anybody would be bored out of their mind if they had been in the demon fox's position. Being stuck in a spiritual cage for 12 years tended to do that to you.

The reason why the blond mop of hair groaned was that she was actually winning against the kitsune for once, when she got distracted and ended up calling the Kyuubi an overgrown, skinless rabbit more than once.

"Uzumaki Narue!"

The girl feigned sleepiness as she rubbed at her eyes and rose to stumble down the stairs. There were a few snickers to accompany the descent as she walked pass the Chuunin announcer and into the wall. That woke her up.

"It's my turn already?!" Narue slumped against the wall as she rubbed her eyes again.

"Yes. And if you continue at this speed, you will be disqualified."

At a speed that rivaled light, the girl shot through the door of the classroom, as rustling of papers and moving air was heard as she raced towards the examination room.

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There you go! This is my very first Naruto fanfiction ever. After I bombed my precious fanfiction cause of a runaway plot bunny, I decided to wait a bit until a better idea popped into my head. Well this is the result of that idea. I hoped you enjoyed it.

I know it was a bit boring cringe because over half of the chapter is filled with the ramblings of the Sandaime, but bear with me. It'll get better once you have all the background information.

Anyways, R&R guys, and tell me what you think! Flames are welcome, as long as it is constructive criticism.

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